It has become a suburb of Mosgiel, but continues to maintain its own unique identity and heritage.

[3] Wingatui is one of the principal stops on the Taieri Gorge Railway, and is also the entrance point to the currently defunct Chain Hills Tunnel single track rail tunnel, which links Wingatui with the Dunedin suburb of Abbotsford to the east.

[4] Local action groups are working with the Dunedin City Council in assessing the possibility of refurbishing and re-opening the disused tunnel to cycle and pedestrian traffic.

A popular myth ascribes the township's name to a bird-shooting incident involving the wounding of a tūī by newly-arrived settler William Stevenson, described by A.W.

Reed as "surely apocryphal" and that the name might be a contraction of whiringatua - "place of the plaiting of straps" or uingatui - "what the tui said", a reference to training tui to talk, or whiringa-a-tau - grey warbler.